With her inaugural speech Wednesday, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has ushered in a new Parti Québécois government desperate to accelerate economic growth but determined to rein in the greed of private enterprise

MONTREAL — With her inaugural speech Wednesday, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has ushered in a new Parti Québécois government desperate to accelerate economic growth but determined to rein in the greed of private enterprise.

The PQ has already outlined plans to shut down the province’s Gentilly-2 nuclear power station. It cancelled a $58-million loan agreement that would have restarted asbestos production at the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que. And it signalled it wants to change the mandate of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec by ordering the pension fund manager to crank up economic development and help shield the best local companies from takeovers, a move that will almost certainly result in a new Quebec discount for the province’s publicly traded firms.

Now, in an address laying out her legislative agenda, Ms. Marois said her minority government intends to exploit Quebec’s oil resources, as long as the “highest standards” of environmental protection and social acceptability are met.

We want economic development that is fair and equitable, that responds to the demands of the 21st Century and not to those of short-sighted profit at all cost

She said her government supports current negotiations for a free-trade deal with Europe, and she said she would preside over a new ministerial action group to oversee private investment projects in the north and elsewhere.

“We want economic development that is fair and equitable, that responds to the demands of the 21st Century and not to those of short-sighted profit at all cost,” Ms. Marois told the legislature. “There’s no way we’ll do what the previous government did and create illusory growth by increasing expenses and public debt.”

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Investors have for weeks questioned what the PQ would do with the former Liberal government’s Plan Nord, an $80-billion, 25-year effort to develop the metals, minerals and forest products in Quebec’s northern territory engineered by former premier Jean Charest. Now they appear to have their answer: Some kind of development plan stays, but it will be more tightly controlled by cabinet as the government presses for a bigger share of the financial spoils.

Ms. Marois said her government intends to hike mining royalties. She also wants to coax companies to transform in Quebec the resources they’re pulling from the ground here.

During a trip to France in mid-October, she mused about offering a new system of tax credits to miners if they agreed to such operations.

As of February, the Plan Nord had generated $6-billion worth of private investment to date, according to government figures. Companies active in Quebec’s north include ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s biggest steelmaker, which is spending US$2.1-billion to expand its Mont Wright iron ore mine near Fermont.

Critics charge the Charest government was too generous toward the private sector, pledging infrastructure and electric power to fuel operations without demanding enough in return. As political commentator Marie Grégoire put it: “The impression is that we’re in the boat [with these companies], but we’re doing all the rowing.”

One project that illustrates the PQ government’s predicament inheriting the previous administration’s economic programs is the Route 167 extension, a 243-kilometre all-season highway leading to Stornoway Diamond Corp.’s Renard diamond mine site. Treasury Board president Stéphane Bédard has singled out the road’s construction as one of 20 major infrastructure projects experiencing collective cost overruns of 80%.

Most of the extension is done, but costs have ballooned from an initial budget of $260-million to more than $470-million, Mr. Bédard said.

Quebec’s finance department intends to review expenses related to the road before hiring contractors to finish its northern-most segments.

Under an agreement with Stornoway, in which Quebec holds a sizable equity stake, the company will contribute $44-million to the road’s cost and up to $1.2-million a year to maintain it while the government pays the balance and covers any overruns.

Stornoway’s financing obligations are contingent on the road being completed by July 2013 so equipment can move in ahead of a 2015 production start. That’s now in doubt pending the review.

Stornoway chief executive Matt Manson said in an interview Wednesday the company is open to a model in which it puts money into the road and it gets built. As to whether the current deal might be reworked, he said the company will wait to see what the government proposes.

“There is a remarkable consensus of opinion that this [project] is a good thing to be doing; the issue is schedule and cost,” Mr. Manson said.

“Renard will be a mine which will work for very many years with a road to the gates. The question is just when and on what basis that’s achieved.”

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